Dobermann

Dobermann is one of my all time favourite films. Many thanks to DJ for introducing this to me. It is one of those movies that you can revisit time and again. It's all in French and the copy I have has no subtitles. No problem. The movie is a fairly basic (though complex) bank robbery come shoot-out in the style of Heat. However, the movie has a darker 'arty' side and the director Jan Kounen takes you on a visual and mental roller-coaster ride of darkness and weirdness toward the end of the movie. He is often compared to Tarantino but it is much darker and rather more artistic.

Here are some reader comments on IMDB. One for the guys to sit around and have beers to. Certainly not a ladies 'Hugh grant' movie. Thoroughly enjoyable and witty.

That's not really what I wanted to write about though. The Directors Cut is a must have for any movie buff as it comes with an additional DVD which includes several works by the director or including several of the actors from the movie itself. Very, very, dark and very good. One of my favourites is a very bizarre Little Red Riding Hood Story "Le dernier Chaperon Rouge". From the IMDB site, here is a reader comment that just about sums it up. It cannot possibly do justice to the visual beauty of this short movie:

"Here is an extraordinary garden where the boletus mushrooms, the chanterelle mushrooms, the death-cup mushrooms, rabbits and brambles dance and sing to music coming from nowhere. But in this garden there is also a rocket underground in which a crooked-legged old dancer regains the grace she once had. The little red riding hoods are the unwitting providers of healthy legs. By the orders of a witch, they have all been made to disappear by a monster surgeon. All except one, the last little red riding hood, who is lusted after by the big bad wolf, who is definitely not going to have this desirable bit of loot stolen from him."

I've mentioned LRRH before here. The additional DVD has one of my favourite short movies from this set "Capitaine X" along with several notable shorts to make your mind race and wonder what exactly you have been taking.

News recently is that there is now an updated version of the movie available here with optional English subtitles and reworked to a correct aspect ratio and with a remastering of the original. It is also region free. the link includes a reasonably good plot summary. Not for the squeamish at all.